The Israelites were not a "race" -- it says in Exodus 12:38 that "many other people went up with them." The Israelites were forbidden to marry non-Israelites for religious reasons -- so they wouldn't be led astray to worship false gods worshipped by the surrounding peoples (Nehemiah 13:26-27)

I've not gone to church for quite a while, but I do remember the story of Bathsheba's first husband, Uriah the Hittite, who had lived during the reign of King David (before King David eventually married Bathsheba).

If it were a racial thing, even partway a racial issue, then Uriah would had never been able to marry Bathsheba in the first place. But Uriah worshipped Israel's God and served in Israel's military, so thus he was fit enough as an Israeli citizen to marry an actual Israelite woman.

(Also, some others in this forum obviously do remember the controversy about Moses and his African wife.)

[EDIT]One pastor named Daughenbaugh, pastor of Living Faith Assembly of God, in the 1980s, had a radio show in which he mentioned the controversy over Mose's African wife. Daughenbaugh said that it was wrong for the children of Israel to have such bigotry. Moses was eventually vindicated. Am naming Daughenbaugh because it's right to place credit where it's due; and my mention of the controversy over Moses's African wife is not to be snide towards anybody. Am happy that some remember the example of Moses's wife.[/EDIT]

Even a Hittite could become an Israeli citizen in King David's days! IMO, that's a significant historical fact!

Just because the individual has roots in Africa, does not mean that she was African. She may have been white, and her family moved to Africa, and became citizens of Africa. It does not state that Moses' wife was of different skin color, or different race. Just that she was from Africa. I am an American, but my roots are Irish. Doesnt mean I speak, act, drink, or cuss Gaelic.

BTW, you a-hole, the subject "Mammon" has nothing to do with what I had said.

"Mammon" is about salesmanship. Maybe you were selling or pushing something, but I wasn't.

Maybe you're a ponce or a pimp, but I am not. "Mammon" is salesmanship personified, and I wasn't trying to sell anybody anything -- but perhaps YOU are/were trying to sell something to somebody.

That's why I think you're an a-hole, because you really are that obnoxious with your self-righteous tendency to provoke people. You're an attack artist, and it shows! I strongly suggest that you get out of my face!

BTW -- If you think that you can either convert me or demean me, then that is probably because that you are a power freak.

Oh, and: don't believe that for one moment that your revolting verbal attack on me could count for piety. The only "god" that somebody like you could ever please would probably be a very evil "god"!

An a-hole just like those freaks, Jack T. Chick and Freddie Phelps and the "Muslim" "Clerics" who encourage people (such as Nidal Malik Hasan, Nov. 5th) to attack civilians in the name of their radicalized ideology, and radicalized ideology is just another damnable evil "god"!

First of all, if you are going to try and have a discussion with me, calling a person an "a-hole" will get you nowhere but show your childlike mentality. Secondly, if you are going to try and argue the Bible with me, you better get your definitions right. Mammon does not refer to "salesmen." Mammon is a "deity" that you all personify rather than God. Mammon in the Old English was used to deify something other than God, which cannot happen.

"To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their s...

First of all, if you are going to try and have a discussion with me, calling a person an "a-hole" will get you nowhere but show your childlike mentality. Secondly, if you are going to try and argue the Bible with me, you better get your definitions right. Mammon does not refer to "salesmen." Mammon is a "deity" that you all personify rather than God. Mammon in the Old English was used to deify something other than God, which cannot happen.

"To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth."

Your sin has been exposed, and you have no covering for them. That is why you are rude to others. Because you were exposed, and you are trying to cover it up.

"And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."

It was a tribal thing - not a racial thing. It was because those who were not of the tribes of Judah wouldn't understand the culture and would weaken the nation by causing mis-understandings between the tribal women.

Well there was that whole a jew can enslave anyone for any length of time and rape them if they were female... But a jew "because they were the chosen people" could not be enslaved unless it was indentured by an unpaid debt and the jew must be released after 7 years....crap.

There was that "happy to kill the people of the neighboring village and rape the female children and enslave them"

But they all looked like arabs then... there was no different colored skin in the "holy lands"

I the Old Testament, it wasn't about race. It was about not marrying someone who would lead you away from the worship of the true God, to the worship of idols.

As a matter of amazing fact, Jacob had a child with a Canaanite woman, Tamar who was the ancestor of Salmon - who married Rahab (the Jericho prostitute) the mother of Boaz who married the Moabite, Ruth. Her great grandson was King David from whose lineage Jesus came.

If I didn't lose you yet, all that was to say that God put non- Jews into Jesus' family tree.

Just so long as I marry the same species, I don't think the Lord cares all that much. ;-) Besides, all people are equal in the eyes of the Lord. I don't think it matters if I (a girl as white as the driven snow) marries the blackest man I can find. God will love me anyway, because he's just awesome like that. Not that it matters anyway, no racism here but I like extremely white guys.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrews were instructed not to marry "foreigners" and not to give your wife to a "foreigner" if you divorce her, but it also points out that "foreigner" refers to non-Hebrews. Of course, that was as racially based as it was faith based. In the New Testament, faith is regarded as only a spiritual and not physical. I have never seen any verse that directly or indirectly condemns an interracial marriage of two members of the same faith. Based on this, I can only assume there is no limitation as to what race is in the marriage, but you must both be of the same religion. I'm a white Christian male, and I would love to marry a Nubian beauty, but she MUST be a Christian, no negotiations.

Neither Old nor New Testament mention interracial marriage. Indeed - neither even mentions race. Why? Because race is a relatively recent concept, one unknown in biblical times. These people did not think in terms of "black race" or "white race" but, rather, Egyptians or Hebrews or Ethiopians. Religion, culture and language - in other words, ethnicity - were the differentiating factors, not the unknown concept of "race".

Even here, there are only *very specific* ethnic groups which the Jews - and only the Jews - were forbidden to marry. These were Canaanite peoples. The restriction was not absolute: first, a Canaanite virgin who married a Jew automatically became a Jew. However, a Jewish woman who married a Canaanite became a Canaanite, and the (male) descendants in the direct male line from a male Canaanite were forbidden from entering the temple for 10 generations. Note that this restriction was given for strictly religious reasons, however, and not *any* other reason.

The reason for this instruction was not based on race but based on belief. The fall of Solomon was due to his choosing of wives from other nations that did not worship that God of his fathers; they had influence in turning him from God.

No, the reason most Israelites married of their own race was because they wanted to marry of the same RELIGION. They didn't want to marry say, people like the Canaanites, who did bad things like practice polygamy.

No of course not, Moses later married an Ethiopian woman, and God told them to banish Miriam for 7 days after she made an ugly comment about it, and said "it would have been better if her father would have spit in her face."something to that affect.

Plus, After Sarah died of old age Abraham married Keturah a Canaanite (black woman), and had several more children by her. The bible is full of mixed marriages, but forbade the mixing of Hebrews (or those that serve Him alone) with those of other religions because they sacrificed their babies, ate nasty things, did witchcraft, cut themselves and would turn the heart of the Hebrew people he loved against serving the Lord alone.

"And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman" (Num. 12.1). "Then again Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah" Abraham married a black woman from Canaan named Keturah (Genisis) chapter 25, verses 1-6

Don't for get that Soloman had a relationship with the Queen of Sheba (Ethiopia) and by Their Orthodox faith this relationship led to a son that later traveled back to Israel to visit! I find it very amusing many people learn their Bible History from self proclaimed experts fram a pulpit on Sunday with an agenda!

Lol....Ethiopian Orthodox Followers are NOT reading from the King James version!

Yeah I heard of that and saw the exodus Jewish Somalians were making back to Israel a few years ago. Some say the seed of Queen of Sheba and King Solomon was one of the lost tribes of Israel, i don't know how accurate that is though, I would have to study that out. blessings

Israel made great efforts to take in Ethiopian Jews (definately believed by Jews to be one of the Lost Tribes) during the time of their great famine and communist leanings in the late 70s early 80s. There is as good evidence as any that if the tablets of Moses survive they are possibly in Ethiopia and many Ethiopian Jews & Orthodox Christians believe so!

Oh my goodness, I heard that. Like they had boys the aged into old guardian priest protecting the Arch of the Covenant until the Jews rebuilt Solomon's temple and sanctified the the virgin male Levites of Israel